Even though Election Day turnout was “a little disappointing,” with a third fewer voters showing up than in 2016, Bexar County residents shattered voter turnout records.
The mix of a deadly pandemic, a summer of unrest and a fiercely contested presidential election drew Bexar County voters to the polls in unprecedented numbers, with roughly 677,000 casting ballots in person or by mail before Election Day.
By the end of Election Day, about 760,000 people had voted — 64 percent of registered voters. That’s up from 57.7 percent in 2016, the previous record.
“I’m proud of the citizens of Bexar County,” said Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen. “I think we can take a deep sigh.”
About 597,000 early voters cast ballots in person, and another 80,000 voted by mail. By the time polls closed, about 83,000 people had voted Tuesday, a significant drop from the 123,000 who cast ballots on Election Day in 2016.
Despite the lower-than-usual Election Day turnout, the total number of votes was 177,000 higher than in 2016 — an all-time record, according to election data. That doesn’t include about 20,000 mail-in ballots that hadn’t been returned by Tuesday but still could be counted if they arrive today.
“Early voting was a success — hands down,” Callanen said. “And Election Day was a success — just a little bit disappointing. … We set certain goals, we staff up for a certain amount of people to come, and they just didn’t come so far today.”
On ExpressNews.com: View 2020 Election Night results
Tuesday’s modest turnout meant that the day went slowly — but smoothly — at the county’s 302 polling stations. Aside from some glitches with election site printers early Tuesday, few problems were reported to election officials.
“It’s been quiet on our end,” Callanen said at a midday news briefing. “A lot of the calls that we have … are with a number of voters who didn’t understand the process and that they had to register to vote before they could actually vote.”
Since 2016, Bexar County’s voter rolls grew by 132,000 people, although it’s not yet clear how many of the new voters cast ballots in the election.
George R. Warner, 57, was one of the voters casting a ballot for the first time. His sons encouraged him to vote this year after they went to the AT&T Center and didn’t have to wait long — “15 minutes in and out,” he said.
He voted in the East Side neighborhood he’s lived in his whole life.
“If you vote then you have a say,” he said. “I think we all want changes in our community.”
Earlier that day, Giovanni Collins smiled as he left the voting area at the Alzafar Shrine Temple. It was also the first time the 24-year-old had voted in a presidential election.
“I didn’t feel either one of them (Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton) should have been president the last time,” Collins said. “This time I’m not taking anything for granted. I’ve got two kids, and whatever the next president decides will affect me and them.”
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Even with the record turnout, it was unusually quiet at many polling places. Other than a line that began to snake outside the door of the Central Library at 6 a.m. — an hour before polls opened at 7 — voters trickled in slowly for most of the day.
“I don’t think we’ve had more than two or three people at a time,” said Gail Reinhart, an alternate election judge at the downtown library. “It was just the morning rush.”
Reinhart said she’d expected slow but steady traffic on Election Day because of the flood of early voters.
Still, some voters who arrived at the library had prepared for a lengthy wait — just in case.
“We did have one woman arrive with this bag literally full of snacks,” she said. “And she was in line for about 10 minutes.”
Staff writers John MacCormack, Richard A. Marini and Laura Garcia contributed to this report.
Marina Starleaf Riker is an investigative reporter for the San Antonio Express-News with extensive experience covering affordable housing, inequality and disaster recovery. To read more from Marina, become a subscriber. marina.riker@express-news.net | Twitter: @MarinaStarleaf
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Bexar County breaks voter turnout records in spite of low numbers on Election Day - San Antonio Express-News
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